Dublin Kitchen Respray
How we discovered and removed a live malware infection, disavowed a toxic backlink profile, corrected duplicate schema markup, and lifted Semrush Site Health from 83 to 99 — all while the client had no idea the site was under attack.
Visit WebsiteChallenges Faced
Dublin Kitchen Respray had a live, actively marketed website — but underneath the surface, a malicious infection and a stack of technical SEO issues were quietly eroding trust and visibility. Google had already flagged harmful content, while duplicate schema markup and a toxic backlink profile were working against the site's technical health.
Live Malware Infection Detected by Google
While performing the technical SEO audit, we discovered malicious code injected into WordPress core files. Google had already flagged harmful content on an infected page, and structured data had been manipulated to include a spam gambling image — a clear sign of an active compromise.
Semrush Site Health Score of 83/100
A technical SEO backlog — duplicate titles, duplicate meta descriptions, missing H1s, thin-content pages, broken external links, and orphaned sitemap pages — was dragging the site’s overall technical health down, well below where a local service site should be.
Toxic Backlink Profile Flagged by Semrush & GSC
Both Semrush and Google Search Console’s Links section identified a set of toxic, low-quality backlinks from spam link-shortener networks pointing at the domain — the kind of profile that quietly erodes search trust over time.
181 Sitemap URLs Stuck Outside the Index
Of 578 URLs in the XML sitemap, 397 were already indexed — leaving 181 pages sitting outside Google’s index, alongside additional GSC indexing exclusions that needed to be triaged one by one.
Our Strategy
A security-first, phase-by-phase technical SEO approach — lock down and clean the site, then rebuild its technical foundation, its link profile, and its speed.
- Identified and removed all malicious files, including compromised WordPress core files flagged by Wordfence and Google
- Removed the spam-injected gambling image from structured data and cleaned affected schema markup
- Updated every plugin to the latest stable release and removed an unused, two-year-outdated theme
- Changed the login URL, reset admin credentials, and enabled Two-Factor Authentication
- Resolved every fixable Semrush issue: duplicate titles, duplicate metas, duplicate content, thin pages, broken links, and missing H1s
- Moved an empty post and a duplicate-content post to draft, updated internal links, and 301-redirected both URLs to the correct live pages
- Corrected a canonical mismatch by fixing the URL slug and updating the canonical tag site-wide
- Site Health score rose from 83 to 99 following the full technical SEO audit-and-fix pass
- Cross-checked toxic backlinks reported by both Semrush and Google Search Console’s Links section against the live link profile
- Disavowed genuinely toxic domains via the Google Disavow Tool, backed by a documented audit sheet and submission screenshots
- Applied a more conservative disavow in Semrush only for links that didn’t warrant a Google-level disavow, avoiding over-disavowing healthy links
- Removed spam-shortener domains linking through share redirect networks
- Corrected duplicate Organization and LocalBusiness schema on the homepage, keeping only the complete, accurate entries
- Fixed the missing-author issue on Article schema across blog posts and validated all structured data post-cleanup
- Optimised page speed across mobile and desktop, resolving agentic browsing issues and passing Core Web Vitals assessments
- Worked through GSC indexing categories — 404s, noindex exclusions, redirects — and submitted daily indexing requests for the 181 still-outside URLs
Results That Speak
A cleaner, safer, more crawlable site — with the technical SEO foundation now in place to keep improving month over month.
Semrush Site Health
Malicious Files Remaining
Toxic Domains Disavowed
Sitemap URLs Indexed
Before & After
Semrush Site Audit, malware cleanup, toxic backlink disavow, and PageSpeed Insights improvements after our technical SEO work.
"We had no idea our website had been hacked or that so many technical SEO issues were holding us back. The team found the malware, cleaned everything up, and fixed problems we didn't even know existed. Our site is safer, faster, and finally showing up properly in Google — the improvement has been incredible."
Dublin Kitchen Respray
Dublin Kitchen Respray is a Dublin-based kitchen and furniture respray specialist working under the banner “Don’t Replace. Respray!” The team transforms tired kitchen cabinets, wardrobes, and worktops — including granite-effect countertop finishes — using professional spray techniques, without the cost, mess, or downtime of a full renovation. Based in Kinsealy, they serve homeowners across Dublin and the surrounding counties, typically completing a full kitchen respray in one to three days.
Dublin Kitchen Respray
Kitchen & Furniture Respray — Kinsealy, Dublin
Hidden Issues, Real Losses —
We Find Both
From malware and toxic backlinks to slow load times and indexing gaps, our technical SEO team finds and fixes the issues quietly costing you traffic and trust.